Scrutinizing all the relevant case-law of the International Criminal Court (ICC), this book elucidates the paradigm that the ICC’s jurisprudence represents in international criminal justice. It presents in-depth knowledge of how contemporary international criminal justice preserves, departs from or extends the principles that have developed since the Nuremberg Trials. The author explains how the ICC affirms that the most serious crimes of international concern must not go unpunished.

The book explores all the relevant case-law since the ICC’s inception, including its most recent judgments. It presents the clear universalist approach taken by the ICC, and demonstrates how this, both procedurally and substantively, distinguishes the Court from other international criminal tribunals.

The author further explains the solid embedment of human rights law and victim-based justice into contemporary international criminal justice. He particularly demonstrates how a jurisprudential balance is struck between the determination to end impunity and the need for a fair and impartial trial. With regard to victim-based justice, the book particularly elucidates the rights of the victims before the ICC to participate in the proceedings and to receive reparations.

This book is a primary and authoritative source for the interpretation of the Rome Statute – the governing instrument of the ICC – and the evolution of international criminal justice as a response to unimaginable atrocities that victimize humankind. It clearly demonstrates how the jurisprudence of the ICC attempts to remedy the deficiencies of earlier international criminal tribunals.